Tuesday, April 18, 2017

SCORSESE IN THE 21ST CENTURY

I would like to spend our second-to-last class (on Tuesday, May 2) screening excerpts from the films Martin Scorsese has been directing since Kundun.

In preparation for this class, please choose one of the films from the following list (one you've seen or will see in the coming days) and describe how it narratively, aesthetically, and/or thematically connects to one of the films of Scorsese's we screened previously this semester:

  • Bringing Out the Dead (1999)
  • Gangs of New York (2002)
  • The Aviator (2004)
  • No Direction Home: Bob Dylan (2005)
  • The Departed (2006)
  • Shutter Island (2010)
  • A Letter to Elia (2010)
  • Public Speaking (2010)
  • George Harrison: Living in the Material World (2011)
  • Hugo (2011)
  • The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
  • The Fifty Year Argument (2014)
  • Silence (2016)

Finally, select a moment/scene/sequence from your chosen Scorsese film that you'd like to screen in class (including a time code detailing exactly when it starts and ends if you can) and explain how the excerpt you've selected supports the narrative/aesthetic/thematic connection you're making to an earlier Scorsese film.

We will try showing as many clips as possible during our May 2 class, so it would be great if you can bring in a copy of the film you're wanting to screen an excerpt from. But if you can't do that, I'll do my best to get copies of whatever films from the list above you choose to write about.

Please be sure to post your thoughtful and thorough response (your last one of the semester!) as soon as you can - but definitely by no later than midnight on Monday, May 1.

KUNDUN
























Although I'm not requiring you to write about this week's film, I would of course love to know what you thought. So if you want to make up for a post you missed earlier in the semester - or if you'd like a little extra credit - please provide a thoughtful and thorough response here by no later than midnight next Monday, April 24.

Feel free to make connections between this work and the previous films of Martin Scorsese's we've screened up to this point Also, I mentioned in class what The Last Emperor director Bernardo Bertolucci asked Scorsese just as he was about to start shooting Kundun: "Have you learned that everything is form and form is emptiness?" If you can, I'm be interested to have you consider and address in your response how Bertolucci's question structurally and aesthetically applies to this very spiritual film.

Tuesday, April 11, 2017

THE AGE OF INNOCENCE

This film is often considered a great departure from Martin Scorsese's previous offerings. Respond freely to what you thought about it, but please try to articulate the ways in which The Age of Innocence is similar to and/or different from the other Scorsese films and protagonists we've engaged with this semester.

Also, if you can, please address the ways in which Scorsese aesthetically achieves, as he once said in an interview about this film, "that sense of memory and loss, déjà vu almost."

I look forward to reading what you write by no later than midnight next Monday, April 17. Have fun with it!